Site Design
We work closely with Landscape Architects in this area but frequently we retain total control over the site design especially in commercial and industrial projects. Detention and retention ponds in commercial developments are our specialty as they are part of the overall site drainage – an integral part of a shopping enter, for example, with acres of parking.

Drainage
As development and population growth increases so does the amount of impervious surface in urban areas and consequently the issue of storm water collection is becoming more critical. Many of the existing systems in the North East United States are a hundred years old and are both inadequately sized and in need of repair. We have rehabilitated miles of storm water systems and designed new collection and disposal networks for several communities as well as undertaken BMP design and management.

Land Development
Residential development projects undertaken by the company range from 5 lots to 240 lots and from condominiums to single family homes. The smaller projects are often extensions to existing streets but as development moves further away from urban cores there is an increasing need for the design of projects with complete, stand alone infrastructure. One such project that we undertook, Rushmore (now known as Brigadoon) in Orange County, New York State is a 240 unit development on 484 acres. The steep wooded land did not lend itself to the urban regulations of the Town's Master Plan, so we worked closely with the developer and the Town and succeeded in saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction by making changes which retained some of the rural character of the property. We reduced the width of the collector road, we used Cape Cod curbs instead of concrete curbing, we designed a mostly open drainage system which kept excess water on the site, enhancing the recharge areas and we designed a Modulair wastewater treatment plant which surpassed the effluent limitations set by the state for discharge into a trout spawning stream. The land was a foraging area for the timber rattlesnake, a threatened species in New York State, and, working with a herpetologist we designed a snake fence to separate the open land from the development. Approximately 240 acres of open land was donated to the Nature Conservancy and the rattlesnakes and the people were protected!

Every development faces challenges - we work with our clients to turn them into positive attributes and to create successful and profitable, environmentally sensitive developments.